Part 58 (1/2)
”Then if s true.”
”No. And yet I am in trouble. I have been seeing this woman.”
”A married woman?”
Han looked dawn, troubled. ”I wish she were. It would make my present problem much easier to deal with. No ... she is pregnant.” ”Ah ... And she will not relinquish the child.”
Han's eyes came up. ”Kill it, you mean?”
”I was trying to be sensitive ...”
Han raised a hand, acknowledging that ”No. Nor would I have her kill it It is my child, after all. But the woman is common.”
”Common?”
”All right. She's a wh.o.r.e, d.a.m.n it! I've been seeing her for several years now.”
”But wh.o.r.es ...”
”Take precautions, yes, but this one didn't”
”So pay her off. Give her an allowance.”
”I offered, but she refused point-blank”
”Then cut her dead.”
”I cannot, I...” Han looked down, embarra.s.sed deeply. ”I like her, Yuan.”
”Enough to marry her?”
Han Ch'in nodded.
”Ah... I see now. The roan in you wishes to marry her, but the Major... the Major is worried what his superiors will say. And as for your chances of becoming Consul...”
”They would cut me dead.”
It was true. For a Consul to marry a wh.o.r.e was impossible. It would be effectively an insult to every wife of every man he met and had dealings with. ”Aiya...” Li Yuan slowly shook his head, then, seeing Cho Yi coming back across, leaned across and laid his hand over his brother's. ”Let me mull this over for a while, dear brother, and consider what would be best to do. Tell her you will give her your decision in a week.””And if she will not wait that long?” ”She will wait, Han Ch'in. I a.s.sure you. In the meantime write down her address.
I will go and see her.”
”Do you think that1 s wise, brother?”
”If I am to advise you properly in this matter, I had best meet the woman, neh?” Han frowned, then. ”I guess so.” Taking a napkin, he scribbled down a name and an address, then handed it to Li Yuan. ”There,” he said, with a slightly shamefaced expression. ”But please... do not say who you are, Yuan. Not yet.
I...”
But Cho Yi was back and no more could be said. Li Yuan pocketed the napkin, then looked up, smiling as Cho Yi took his seat again. ”I've made my mind up,” Yuan said, smiling at his partner. ”I think I'll have the boiled monkey.”
Kim looked down at his hands and frowned. ”Eighty-four billion?”
”Eighty-four billion.”
”But how do they feed them all?”
”They don't. Several billion - three, some say four, billion -are starving in this world.”
”But that still leaves ...”
”Eighty billion.”
”So?”
”Mars is a farming world. There are ma.s.sive greenhouses out there. And nine-tenths of its output is s.h.i.+pped back here. And then there are the floating factories. Great orbital farms many times the size that you and I are used to.” ”But why? Why did they let it all get out of hand?” ”For the same reasons it happened in our worlds. Because mankind's urge to multiply obeys no laws of reason. And because it suits the people of this world to let it be so. Imagine the size of the markets here! The five Presidents are powerless beside the Heads of Companies. They are the real rulers of this world, and that” s why DeVore has chosen the marketplace as his battleground.” ”The stock markets?”
”Yes. And he's about to strike. Tomorrow, if I'm right There'll be a trigger event of some kind, no doubt, but it was all prepared long ago.” ”Prepared?”
”As on our worlds.” K. looked at the surprise in Kim's face and laughed. ”You mean, you didn't know? You think the great economic collapses that struck our worlds were accidental? No. They too were DeVore's doing. But in both those cases he struck too soon. Despite the Century of Blood, as it was known, mankind survived that body blow.”
Kim's eyes widened. ”Tsao Ch'un?”
”That's right. Ironic, isn't itf That the great Tyrant should have been the one to save us. I've looked upon him with kinder eyes since I've known. But here Tsao Ch'un never got his chance. He lived and died in obscurity. His moment never came. And DeVore kept his nerve, building his own economic empire - a shadow empire - within those of the great Merchant Lords.” K. sighed. ”Little do those great and powerful men know it, but the majority of their holdings - vast as they are -are in the hands of their chief enemy. The man who would bring it all rumbling down on top of them. He has built a great web of companies, connected in such complex ways that even the subtlest-minded a.n.a.lyst would never guess who was the Puppetmaster behind them all.” ”And yet you did.”
K. shrugged. ”It was easy. I knew what I was looking for.”
”And what was that?”
”DeVore himself. Once I found him, I found the main root After that I merely had to dig.”
”But why tomorrow?”
”Because it is the last day of this world.”
Kim felt a shock ripple through him. ”You know that for a fart?” ”Not for a fact, but I asked the Edderiminaru, and they sense nothing beyond tomorrow.”
”Then we shall fail.”